Stoke-on-Trent City Council coalbed methane plans in tatters with taxpayers left with a £1/2m bill

Plans by Stoke-on-Trent City Council to extract coal bed methane have collapsed in tatters after costs to extract the gas rocketed from £18m to £46.4m in just eight months a report going to next week’s Cabinet meeting have revealed.

Labour council leader Mohammed Pervez unveiled the plans back at the end of August 2013 to a fanfare, with promises they could create 28,000 jobs and generate £1billion of city investment in a knock back to environmental critics who opposed the plans.

The only jobs created were to the consultants awarded the contracts to look into the matter.

Cabinet member, Andy Platt, said the methane extraction scheme would protect thousands of jobs, and help create thousands more in the future.

Now Labour councillors will hear Andy Platt tell them no private sector partner was interested in the scheme and the £419,000 taxpayers bill has come to nothing, with the recommendation to them from officers saying the project should be shelved.

Now city leaders have seen a second multi-million pound project go to the wall in the space of just six months – in January the £350m City Sentral shopping centre disappeared – with promised by Mohammed Pervez new plans would come from developers Realis early in May failing to materialise.